Continue to scrap and make a few plays, keep the chins upright and intact — and who knows just what might happen.

With time winding down in the fourth quarter — and his club sitting in a hole far from insurmountable — that was the mindset flowing through the competitive veins of Jay Crosier’s basketball-playing Central Dauphin Rams.

Still full of energy and determined to prevail, Crosier’s Rams erased a five-point deficit in the final two-plus minutes, forced an overtime session and bounced out of Cedar Cliff High School with a 68-64 victory over the host Colts in the championship game of Cedar Cliff’s Holiday Tournament.

Tournament most valuable player Manny Gonzalez collected 20 points, while Aaron Gress (12), Jake Notestine (11) and A.J. Perez (11) added double-figure efforts as the late-charging Rams (6-5) picked up big plays from lots of people down the stretch.

CD’s rally also spoiled a terrific outing by Cedar Cliff’s 6-7 Zack Galic, who dropped in a game-high 26 points and swallowed up 14 rebounds. Galic, however, had a pair of late looks that wouldn’t fall. Had either dropped, the Colts would have won.

Derek Ford added 15 points and Tyler Hoagland chimed in with 13 for Jim Rowe’s ballclub (7-3), which had won its last three contests.

REVIEWING THE NUMBERS

Cedar Cliff targeted 46.9 percent of its field-goal attempts (23-for-49), but knocked down just two shots (2-for-8) once the fourth quarter arrived. … The Colts canned five of their 13 3-point attempts. … While Central Dauphin converted 43.5 percent of its shots from the floor (27-for-62) throughout, the Rams sank 55.6 percent of their first-half pops (15-for-27). … CD made three of its 15 3-point attempts. … Cedar Cliff was 13-for-17 from the line, while CD sank 11 of 18. … The Rams committed just eight turnovers in Saturday’s final, but forced Cedar Cliff to turn the ball over 15 times — including nine times in the fourth quarter and OT. … CD outrebounded the Cliff 33-29. … Perez finished with eight boards before fouling out. … Jake Notestine dished out four assists for the Rams. … Ford tacked on five rebounds and matched Hoagland with four assists. … CD’s largest lead was 10 (32-22) following Gonzalez’s conventional three-point play with 4:49 to go in the first half. … Cedar Cliff’s longest lead was seven points (56-49) with 5:33 remaining.

PIVOTAL SEQUENCE

Let’s revisit the final minute of regulation, which began with Cedar Cliff holding a 59-57 lead. While both sides swapped possessions — Perez was assessed a personal for an illegal screen, which was followed by the Rams forcing a five-second call — Notestine had a pair of looks that were off the mark, with the second glancing off the rim and caroming out of play off one of the Colts. Moments later, pops by Notestine and Perez wouldn’t fall but a Ryan Schraf stickback with 23 seconds to go tied things up. Cedar Cliff had several late looks, but Galic could not get a couple of finishes at the rim to fall. As a result, the game moved into OT.

MORE NOTES AND NUGGETS

Schraf absorbed several charges, including a pair on the Colts’ brawny Cameron Paul. … Cedar Cliff will return to Keystone Division play against Lower Dauphin on Friday. … Central Dauphin will open January at home against Cumberland Valley. … Daniel Boone claimed third with a 43-35 victory over Unionville.

THEY SAID IT

(Crosier on the victory) “We did some things we needed to do to win tonight. Now that they’ve proven they can do it, I just told them, ‘You’ve got to bring it every single night.’ I’m very proud of the effort those kids put forth. I thought that we didn’t turn the ball over as much as we had recently. … We still aren’t perfect. We’re still missing free throws — we could have put it out of reach at the end — but you know they compete. They compete and they are good kids.”

(Gonzalez on CD’s collective effort) “Coach kept telling us that no matter what happens just keep attacking and just don’t get too crazy. Just stay within ourselves and everything will happen for us.”

(Rowe on the disappointing loss) “We turned the ball over a lot in the fourth and the overtime. We got outrebounded, especially when the game was on the line, giving up three, four chances to tie the game up. All you gotta do is get a rebound and the game’s probably over. We still had an opportunity at the end to win it and didn’t, but I think that’s the most turnovers we had all year. That hurt us.”